The weeks that follow a presidential election, when the outgoing President occupies himself with putting the finishing touches on his legacy while leaving it to the President-elect to put together the team that will take the reins of power, are usually a fallow period in US politics. Not this time.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Ethiopian Revolution, which began as an uprising against the semi-feudal despotism of Emperor Haile Selassie but would go much further, culminating in the abolition of capitalism in the country. In this article, Ben Curry, gives an account of these dramatic events, and explains the complex processes that shaped the revolution’s course.

85,000 students went on strike last week against Israel’s ongoing slaughter in Gaza. This was the largest student strike over international solidarity that Canada has ever seen.

French capitalism has entered a new period of massive job destruction. Announcements of closures and redundancy plans are multiplying: Michelin, Auchan, ArcelorMittal, and many others. According to the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), 150,000 industrial jobs are at risk in the short term. By closing down production, contractors are setting off a chain reaction, with suppliers and subcontractors filing for bankruptcy or laying off their own workers.

On 23 November, more than 500 comrades from across Italy filled the rooms of the Frentani Congress Centre in Rome for the launch of the Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR). This meeting was the culmination of a months-long political campaign, stretching from Trento to Messina; but, above all, it represented a new beginning and an appeal to anyone who wants to mobilise against inequality, war and the innumerable forms of oppression engendered by the capitalist system.

On Thursday 21 November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) finally issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s prime minister and former defence minister respectively, for ‘war crimes’.

Three weeks ago, to the horror of the liberal establishment in the USA and internationally, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States for the second time, defeating the hated and discredited Democrats. The capitalist media is filled with hysteria about a dire threat to democracy and the rise of ‘fascism’ posed by Trump’s presidency… just like in 2016! Communists need to cut through all the noise and understand what is really happening here.

In the last few weeks a dramatic situation has opened up in Argentina’s university campuses and schools. In response to President Javier Milei’s defunding of the public university system, students have voted to occupy campus after campus across the country. The movement is gaining support beyond students, providing an avenue for all of the hostility towards the Milei government to express itself.

Starmer has followed his American masters and allowed Ukraine to fire British-French missiles into Russian territory. This reckless move will have no bearing on the outcome of the war, other than prompting greater retaliation from Russia. We say, down with the warmongers!

In the autumn of 1914 Lenin began a detailed study of Hegel’s writings. His notes contain a brilliant insight into the dialectical method, of which he was a master. In this article, Hamid Alizadeh draws out the essential aspects of this method, underlining the fundamental importance of theory for the communist movement.

In this episode of Against the Stream, Hamid Alizadeh and Niklas Albin Svensson, from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International, discussed the reckless escalation of the Ukraine war by Biden, Trump’s controversial picks for his administration, and the death of the American Dream.

Just before the founding of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RKP) in Denmark, Reinout Bosch wrote a kind of greeting for our new party on Solidaritet.dk. We hereby send a greeting back to Reinout and the rest of a left wing characterised by gloom and pessimism.

This year’s Revolution Festival – a school of communism organised by the RCP – saw 1,000 communists gather for a weekend of anti-imperialist and Marxist discussion. This landmark event is a launchpad for building the forces of communism in Britain.

On 27 October, Revolutionary Communist University 2024: The Power of Ideas came to a close. This was the second ever Arabic-language school organised by the Revolutionary Communist International. Arabic speakers from Mauritania to Syria sang The Internationaleto celebrate three excellent days of talks and discussions on various theoretical and political topics relevant to the struggle of communists in the Arabic-speaking world.

Oh yes, you read the title correctly. An angry old man in Washington and a psychologically deranged president in Kyiv have been busy jointly plotting a plan that may potentially push the world into an abyss.